The challenge
At a leading insurance company in Italy, claims management involved multiple systems and people with different responsibilities. The team needed a shared direction that brought user needs, business goals and stakeholder perspectives together.
I facilitated a Product in a Box workshop to help participants describe the future product in concrete terms: who it should serve, what it should do and why it would be valuable.
Preparing the workshop
We identified the stakeholders and users to involve, then organized participants into four teams. Each team brought together a mix of perspectives to reflect the people who would use and shape the product.
We prepared a blank box for each group, and I created a short introductory deck to explain the exercise, its purpose and the format of the two-hour session.
Make the future tangible
The starting point was a simple scenario: imagine the product on a shop shelf two years from now. What would its packaging say, and how would it stand out?
Each team used the sides of its box to define a different part of the future product:
- Front — identity: create a product name, logo and tagline that expressed its purpose.
- Back — users: identify the people who would benefit from the product.
- Left — capabilities: describe the features it should offer in two years, considering existing gaps, user pain points and opportunities to improve processes.
- Right — benefits: explain what those capabilities would help users achieve.
The exercise encouraged teams to discuss user challenges, current limitations and future needs together. Each group then presented its box as though selling the product in a mock marketplace. The pitches made different priorities visible and gave participants a way to hear and compare one another’s ideas.
From workshop output to product vision
After the presentations, we consolidated the teams’ inputs into a single product vision using an elevator-pitch format. This connected the intended users and their central problem with the product’s purpose, benefits and difference from the existing systems.
We validated the resulting vision with the product owner before sharing it with the wider group.
The Maestro vision
Maestro was envisioned as a smart claims management product that would help people take the right action at the right time.
- For: claim handlers, claim handler managers, contact center operators and experts.
- The need: clear guidance through claims work that was spread across multiple systems.
- The promise: manage claims in one place through a simpler user experience.
- The approach: automate tasks where possible, guide the next steps and simplify work that still needs to be done manually.
The outcome
The workshop established a shared product vision and stakeholder buy-in. The collaborative format brought user needs, business goals and different areas of expertise into the same discussion.
Because participants helped create the vision, they could see their contributions reflected in the result. The team left with a common direction for a unified claims workspace centered on guidance, simpler manual tasks and automation.